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Entrepreneurship Development Programmes
Entrepreneurship Development Programmes
chimaonuoha2005@yahoo.co.uk
Abstract: This study examined empirically the relationship between Entrepreneurship Development Programmes and
Employment Generation in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria. The predictor variable known as
Entrepreneurship Development Programmes was measured by Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria, National
Directorate of Employment and its effect on the generation of employment. The cross-sectional research design was
adopted for this study as the study deals with the collection of necessary data from respondents at different locations. 103
entrepreneurs were taken from the population size of 114 using the 1970 Krejcie and Morgan table of sample size
determination for the 38 entrepreneurship ventures for this study. A total of 103 copies of questionnaires were
administered out of which 92 copies representing 89.3% of the questionnaires were properly completed and retrieved while
11 copies representing 10.7% were not retrieved. Data was gathered from primary and secondary sources while 4
Hypotheses were tested using the Spearman’s rank-order Correlation Coefficient for analysis with the support of the
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 21. The findings indicated that EDP such as YOUWIN and NDE brings
about employment through formal and informal employment generation. The study however, recommends that the
government should increase the funding of her EDP.
Key words: Entrepreneurship Development Programmes, Formal and Informal Employment, NDE, YouWin.
Published by
Africa Research Corps Network (ARCN)
in Collaboration with
International Academic Journal for Global Research (iajgr) Publishing (USA)
© 2019. Kalapapa Benjamin Dappa and Benedict Chima Onuoha. This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all
non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction inany medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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International Journal of Business, Economics and Entrepreneurship Development in Africa
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The Nigerian government like several other governments of the various nations of the
world is charged with the duty of generating employment to better the lots of her citizenry.
In an event where this is not visible; it encourages her citizenry to engage in different
entrepreneurship activities through the establishment of ventures and unveils several
programmes to ensure these enterprises succeed.
The Nigerian government, at different levels, according to Tende (2014) has endorsed
policies directed at improving the performance of some sectors in other to lower
unemployment rate. Correspondingly, different administrations; usually in collaboration
with the private sector, have launched employment programmes, leading to the institution
of NDE (National Directorate of Employment), SMEDAN (Small and Medium Enterprises
Development Agencies), PAP (Poverty Alleviation Programme), SURE-P (Subsidy
Reinvestment Programme), and YOUWIN (Youth Enterprise With Innovation in Nigeria),
BLP (Better Life Programme), NAPEP (Peoples’ Bank, National Agency for Poverty
Eradication), National Open Apprenticeship Scheme, The Graduate Job Creation Loan
Guarantee Scheme, and Agricultural Sector Employment Program. Regardless of these
policies and programmes, unemployment/empowerment remains a foremost challenge to
the developmental process of the Nigeria economy (Idam, 2014; Tende, 2014).
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International Journal of Business, Economics and Entrepreneurship Development in Africa
Formal
Youwin
Employment
National Informal
Directorate of Employment
Employment
Fig. 1: Adopted from the work of Idam (2014), and the Researcher (2018).
The independent variable also known as predictor variable in this study is entrepreneurial
development programmes established by the work of Idam (2014). Its dimensions consist
of: YOUWIN (Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria) and National NDE (Directorate
of Employee). Then again, the dependent variable also known to be criterion variable is
employment generation. Established by the researcher of this study; its measures include:
formal employment generation and informal employment generation.
Bonny is known as an island town and one of the twenty three (23) Local Government
Areas in Rivers State and also one of the Seven Hundred and Seventy Seven Local
Government Areas in Nigeria (Southern Nigeria), on the Bight of Bonny. It has always been
the capital of the Kingdom of Bonny. Traditionally (particularly between the period around
15th and 19th centuries) it was a dominant trading center of the eastern delta. Bonny
Island, is a main export spot for oil. The region produces a type of crude oil referred to as
Bonny Light oil. Large quantity of the oil extracted onshore in Rivers State is piped to
Bonny for export to various destination. Bonny has the largest LNG Gas Plant in Nigeria
with six (6) trains.
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International Journal of Business, Economics and Entrepreneurship Development in Africa
Ho3: There is no significant relationship between NDE and formal employment generation
in Bonny Local Government Area in Rivers State.
Concept of Entrepreneurship
Holt (1998) stated clearly that the concept of entrepreneurship over the years as it were
has evolved naturally. He stated that Richard Cantillion, a French economist of Irish
descent was the very first economist to have used the word entrepreneurship. Cantillion
gave entrepreneurship concept a central role in economics and was duly credited for that.
An entrepreneur as described by Cantillion is a person who pays a specific amount for a
product to resale it at an uncertain price, by that making decisions about getting and using
resources while thereupon assuming the risk of enterprise (Holt, 1998).
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International Journal of Business, Economics and Entrepreneurship Development in Africa
capital and labour for the aim of producing, coordinating and taking care of a business unit
with the preparedness of bearing the risk for profit (Drucker, 1985; Holt, 1998).
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International Journal of Business, Economics and Entrepreneurship Development in Africa
(SAP), devaluation of the Naira, etc. led to massive job losses in both the public and private
sectors of the economy. In accordance with the Annual Report of the NDE 2013, the rate of
unemployment had increased from 4.3% in 1985 to 7.0% at the commencement of 1987 in
consequence of the situation earlier stated. The scheme was targeted at school leavers,
apprentices, graduates etc. The programme was aimed to address four (4) major areas; (1)
Small Scale Enterprises programme, (2) Vocational skill development programme, (3)
Rural employment promotion programme, (4) Special public work programme. The main
target of the agricultural programme is to create employment for graduates, non-graduates
and school leavers in the Agricultural sector, with emphasis on self-employment in
agricultural production and marketing. The programme is supervised and monitored by a
team of Agricultural professionals in the Agricultural department of the Directorate.
Employment Generation
Every economy is clearly defined by both active and inactive populations. The economically
active ones are seen as the population that have the willingness and ability to work, and
include those actively involved in the creation of goods and services and those who are yet
to be employed.
Since independence in 1960, Nigeria has initiated different development plans suggestive
of employment generation for growth and development. By way of example, the first
National Development Plan (NDP) had a planning focus that covered 1962 to 1968. In this
plan, one of its key objectives and targets were the provision of ‘opportunities in health,
education and employment for all citizens.’ To achieve this fit, the plan granted special
interest to agriculture and industry which seems to have a huge capacity for employment
generation and training of high intermediate workforce.
The second development plan covered the period 1970 to 1974. According to Oni (2006),
the plan focused on building a land with promising and full opportunities for all citizens.
Furthermore, this plan boosted agriculture, transportation, workforce development, etc. as
‘more useful areas for resource allocation’ for employment generation.
The third development plan as it were existed between the period 1975 to 1980 with
special focus on the reduction in unemployment, and increase in high workforce
development.
The fourth development plan shared almost the same philosophy of employment objectives
as the third plan. Periods succeeding these saw the country flourishing in rolling plans until
2004 where the budget took more of the planning objectives for the generation of
employment or reduction of unemployment with strong emphasis in human resource
development, employment generation and poverty eradication. Such objective brought
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International Journal of Business, Economics and Entrepreneurship Development in Africa
Formal Employment
Formal employment has to do with employment in which a firm engages an employee
under an accepted and well established working agreement that comprises, health benefits,
salary or wages, and established work hours and workdays. In several cases, employees do
not work under a signed contract, but instead work under the agreement reached when the
employer gave the job to the employee. This agreement will continue to be valid until the
employer alters it and informs an employee about those alteration/changes. Employees in
a formal engagement agreement are often given a yearly performance evaluation and are
entitled for increment of salary and promotions in regard to their performance. Good
number of analysts have attempted to reveal the challenges to the growth employment and
propose suitable solutions (Chandra et al., 2001 & 2002; Cichello et al., 2005; Kingdon and
Knight, 2007; Nattrass, 2001; Lewis, 2001; Skinner, 2005). Notwithstanding the fact that
greater attention is spent on formal employment, a huge fraction of workers (24% in 2007)
are employed in the informal sector.
Informal Employment
In a very broad term, Becker (2004) expounds the informal sector as the unregulated, non-
formal segment of the market economy that creates goods and services for sale or for other
forms of remuneration. Informal employment has to do with employment in which an
employer engages an employee without an accepted and well established working
agreement. With informal employment, employees do not receive health benefits and are
often employed temporarily. Their hours of work are not assured, which is to say that in
one week they may work 30 hours, and the following week they may work only 10 hours.
Informal employment are seen and handled like contractors, and often move from one
employment to another. In many cases, informal employment workers are paid in cash, but
if they are paid by cheque, no taxes are removed from their salary.
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Akanwa and Akpanabia (2012) investigated the need for the advancement of employment
in Nigeria through the development of entrepreneurship. The study depends mostly on
secondary data from scholars/ authors in the field. They finalized that, government and its
agencies should intentionally encourage entrepreneurial skill and culture in Nigeria so as
to attack and ultimately lessen the huge level of unemployment matters in the country so
that the nation will increase its economic development.
3.0 METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design
For the purpose of this research work; research design can hence be described as a process
that rationalizes and simplifies the phases desirable to conduct an efficacious research
assignment.
The cross-sectional research design was adopted for this study as the study deals with the
collection of necessary data from respondents at different locations, and also, the
respondents were independent of the researcher, and this design is suitable when a study
is concerned with the test of relationship between two or more variables (Kothari, 2008;
Sekaran, 2003). This research work is qualified to be prescribed as a cross sectional study
since data was collated using the questionnaire which was administered to the
respondents to test the relationship between entrepreneurship development programmes
and employment generation.
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Simple random sampling technique was adopted in this study in other to ensure that every
member of the subset has an equivalent probability of being chosen or to assure good
representation of every member of the population (Kothari, 2008).
Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sample size determination table was used for this study which
will give a sample size (S) of 103 Entrepreneurs/owners of the various ventures registered
under the Port Harcourt chambers of commerce covering Bonny Local government area in
Rivers State. The instrument for this study (questionnaire) was proportionately distributed
according to the staff strength of the various firms.
6∑d2
rs = 1 −
N (N2 − 1)
Where: d2 = sum of the squared differences in the ranking of the subject on the two
variables.
N = is number of subjects being ranked.
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be weak but we would take decisions firmly on the p-value if it is less than or equal to 0.05.
Hypothesis one shows a significant relationship existing between YOUWIN and formal
employment with a correlation coefficient of 0.547 and a p-value of 0.000 less than alpha of
0.05. We would therefore reject the null hypothesis.
Hypothesis two shows a negative relationship existing between YOUWIN and informal
employment with a coefficient of 0.113 and a p-value of 0.281 which is higher than alpha of
0.05. We would therefore accept the null hypothesis.
Ho3: There is no significant relationship existing between NDE and formal
employment
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Hypothesis three shows a significant relationship existing between NDE and formal
employment with a coefficient of 0.788 and a p-value of 0.000 which is less than alpha of
0.05. We would therefore reject the null hypothesis.
Hypothesis four shows a significant relationship existing between NDE and informal
employment with a coefficient of 0.413 and a p-value of 0.000 which is less than alpha of
0.05. We would therefore reject the null hypothesis.
Discussion of Findings
This research work explored the bond between entrepreneurship development
programmes and employment generation in Bonny Local government Area in Rivers State.
Four hypotheses were formulated and the outcome of this study showed that there is a
significant relationship between government entrepreneurship developments programmes
and employment generation.
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Hypotheses one and two explored the bond between Youwin and the measures of
employment generation (Formal employment generation and Informal employment
generation). The outcomes led to the rejection and acceptance of the null hypotheses
respectively, stating that Youwin has significant relationship with Formal employment
generation and Informal employment generation.
Based on the results, it was concluded that Youwin has a positive and significant
relationship with employment generation in Bonny Local Government Area in Rivers State.
This result was in consonance with the study of Taiwo (2014) who carried out an empirical
research on impact of entrepreneurship development on job creation in Nigeria. He found
out that in any giving economy, entrepreneurship development always give birth to job
creation which will drive people to engage in activities that will better their lives and the
country as a whole. He assessed the relationship between job creation and
entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. It was obvious from his finding that job creation
or employment opportunity in an economy can be credited to entrepreneurship training
and development. Momoh (2012), Agbanus (2012), Ndumanya (2012) observed that the
Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWin) programme is a collaboration of the
Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Communication and the Ministry of Youth Development
that aims at encouraging aspiring, young entrepreneurs in Nigeria. This is in harmony with
the Federal Government’s vision and move to generate more jobs for Nigerians. The
programme is being administered in partnership with the private sector that is directed
with the mandate to give the funding support. Some of the entrepreneurial development
programmes aimed at combating unemployment problem in the country are run by various
government agencies which include national economic empowerment and development
strategy (NEEDS), small and medium scale development agency (SMEDAN), student
industrial work experience scheme (SIWES), national directorate of employment (NDE)
which provides vocational training for participants to acquire vocational skills in different
trades, among other things;, youth enterprises with innovation in Nigeria (YouWin) and
subsidy reinvestment and empowerment programme (SURE-P).
Hypothesis three and four explored the bond between NDE and the measures of
employment generation (Formal employment generation and Informal employment
generation). It was found that, significant relationship exist between Formal employment
generation and Informal employment generation and NDE, therefore, the null hypothesis
was rejected. This validates the studies of Adebisi; Oni (2012), Nzenwa (2000), Adams, et
al, (2011), Ndujihe (2015) who pointed out that in frantic efforts to seek a way out of the
unemployment problem the Federal Government established the Chukwuma Committee in
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1986 to consider adequate strategies to deal with mass unemployment challenges in the
country under the Ministry of Employment Labour and Productivity and the work of the
Chukwuma Committee, amid others led to the establishment of the NDE. Between 1987 and
1996, about 1.90m Nigerians gained from the NDE skills acquisition, skills that helped in
entrepreneurship development and generation of employment. The outcome of this finding
is also consistent with the research of Owualah (1999) who carried out a study on National
Directorate of Employment (NDE), a government agency with the charge to create
employment, and discovered that government employment training programme, as is the
case with (NDE), gave rise to entrepreneurs, that on average, 4 new jobs were created by
each of these entrepreneurs of the NDE’s employment training programmes. In a similar
study, Adebayo (2006), Bright and Carlo (2003), Coombs (2003) submitted that, NDE
training programmes are created and maintained to enable people to make changes in their
way of living and making a living. Thus, the NDE has a laid down procedure for enrolling
who actually needs its training programmes in an effort to attain the objectives of self-
employment and employment generation in Nigeria. Correspondingly, the outcome of the
finding is also consistent with that of Edet (1991) who carried out his study on the same
government agency (NDE) between 1987 and 1989, and confirmed the programme
employed 8544 persons, inclusive of the owners. Also, the findings of this study supports
the work of Adebisi and Oni (2012) who reported that the programme run by NDE
impacted positively on the previously unemployed Nigerians by offering them employment
that is meaningful.
5.0 Conclusion
Availability of entrepreneurship development programme tends to stimulate anticipated
employment generation both formal and informal. The National Directorate of Employment
(NDE) commenced operations in January, 1987 with conspicuous presence as noticed in all
the States of the federation. To fulfill her statutory mandate, the NDE introduced four (4)
main areas of concern and intervention for mass creation of job for the unemployed namely
Vocational Skills Development, Entrepreneurship Development, Agricultural Skills Training
and Public Works Programme. The Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWin)
project was launched by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on 11th October, 2011 as one
of the Federal Government initiatives to fight the problem of unemployment amidst the
teeming youth in the country. It has directly assisted over Five Thousand (5,000) youth to
generate, sustain or increased their businesses across different value chains in Nigeria. As
part of activities to further support the growth of the 3,900 businesses on the program,
YouWiN organized the 1st YouWiN ‘Made in Nigeria’ Exhibition in Lagos, Nigeria in
December 2016 to link beneficiaries to local and international markets with a view to
expand their market. Following the findings from this study, it can be reasonably concluded
that entrepreneurship development programmes have the capacity of reducing
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Recommendations
From the research analysis and conclusions above, the following recommendations were
made to aid operators of small and medium scale enterprises:
ii. Youwin and NDE should spread to the different communities instead of
concentrating on the urban centres. This is needed so as to catch up with more
pupils and students in the rural areas for entrepreneurship skills acquisition.
iii. The healthy and active poor should be motivated to be involve and partake in
entrepreneurship development programmes established by government. This will
afford them the opportunity of self-employment.
iv. Government should mandate all the seven hundred and seventy four (774) local
government areas in Nigeria to create NDE farms in their areas. This will not only
enhance food production but also provide more employment in the agricultural
sector.
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